


Search and Rescue

by Engineer104



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 06:21:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13001709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104
Summary: Matt's first time babysitting his sister is surprisingly eventful





	Search and Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> My first time writing kid fic is somewhat based on real-life events
> 
> Matt is about six, and Pidge is over a year old
> 
> Also...i'm well aware that it's absurd to leave a six-year-old home alone with their itty bitty sibling

Matt Holt played peekaboo with his baby sister.

He covered his eyes with his hands. “Where’s Matt?” he said. Then, without waiting for Katie to make any sound, he spread his hands and grinned at her. “There he is!”

Katie stared at him blankly, looking as unimpressed as any one-year-old could. She blinked, slowly like a cat, and reached up to scratch her nose.

Matt scowled; it was the third time in a row she hadn’t reacted to his peekaboo. “You used to think it was _funny_ ,” he whined. “What changed?”

“She’s old enough for object permanence, sweetheart,” his mother called from the office. “She knows you’re there.”

Matt glanced past his sister to the doorway of the office, where their mother probably worked on taxes or some other adult task. “What’s object permanence?” he asked.

She emerged from the office, her cell phone to her ear. “I’ll tell you when I’m done talking to Dad, Matt,” she promised.

Matt grinned and returned his attention to Katie. He started offering her scattered toys, which she grabbed and inspected with enthusiasm, everything from Matt’s plastic stethoscope to the blocks that they could use to spell out words.

She giggled and stacked the blocks one by one, and Matt counted each individual with her as she stacked, even though he knew she probably wouldn’t be able to count for herself just yet.

“One,” he said, pointing to the blue ‘L’ at the base, “two”—the yellow block with an ‘H’—“three”—the green ‘P’—“four”—the red ‘K’—“and five.” He gave her one with a purple ‘S’, and she set it carefully on top. Then she turned towards him expectantly, holding out her hand.

Matt reached for another block to give to her, but frowned when he didn’t touch one. “Huh,” he said, surprised. He thought he had more… He crawled over to the coffee table and peered underneath, gasping triumphantly when he spotted another two. He grabbed them both in one hand and gave them to Katie.

“Six,” he said when he pressed the pink ‘A’ and orange ‘C’ into her tiny hands, “and seven.”

Katie stacked them onto the tower diligently. “No mo’?” she asked, looking at him with a worried little pout.

Matt shrugged and admitted, “No more. Sorry, Katie.”

She stared at him disbelievingly, arms crossed.

“Do you want to play something else?” he wondered, hoping to distract her from this plight.

Before she could answer, their mother came out of the office, her hair now bound in a loose bun at the nape of her neck with flyaway bits of dark blonde. “Matt,” she said, “I need you to do a _very_ big favor.”

Matt stood up and went to his mother, making note of how _serious_ and concerned she sounded. “Did something happen to Dad?”

“Oh, no, he’s fine, sweetheart,” she reassured him quickly, “but I have a late meeting at work today, and Dad is late coming home. He should be leaving very soon, so he should be home in time to heat leftovers for dinner, but…” She smiled, but Matt could tell it was strained. “I need you to watch Katie until Dad gets home, okay?”

Matt’s eyes widened in surprise, but then he grinned in delight because this was his first chance to babysit, like he’d been wanting to for as long as Katie had been alive. And now he finally could! “Really?” he said, clasping his hands together. “Really, Mom?”

“Yes,” said his mother. She clutched a leather-bound binder to her chest, her purse hanging from her shoulder. “I promise it won’t be long, and if _anything_ goes wrong you call me immediately, okay?” She pointed a finger directly at him. “Even if I’m in the middle of the meeting, I’ll come home if I need to, got it, Matt?” She stared at him levelly, face and tone serious.

Matt nodded, but he knew there wouldn’t be any problems. He and Katie could watch TV – even something that _she_ liked and he didn’t – without one of their parents hogging the remote, or he could read to her now that he was finally getting the hang of it! It would be _fine_.

“But _just in case_ ,” his mother continued, “I’m telling the neighbors to check on you if Dad isn’t back in twenty minutes.”

Matt frowned. “That’s hardly any time!”

“Oh, Matt, sweetheart, aren’t you a little young to be throwing parties while we’re gone?”

Right, like his best friend’s older brother threw a party while their parents were away for the evening and got into huge trouble, grounded for the entire _year_ , with no allowance and no video games. So Matt reassured his mother, “It’ll be a tiny party, with only me and Katie.”

“Good,” his mother said. “I’m proud of you, sweetheart.” She slipped her binder under her arm and hugged him with the other arm. “Just keep an eye on your sister, and nothing will go wrong.”

“Okay,” Matt said cheerfully.

After kissing Katie goodbye, she left through the garage door, and before long he heard it grinding closed, the sound of her car’s engine fading as she drove away.

And Matt was alone with his sister.

He turned to tell her, for her to share in his excitement, only to see she was _gone_.

Matt’s jaw dropped. “Oh, so you want to play hide-and-seek?” he asked with a smirk. “We can do that.” He sauntered into the living room and peeked under the coffee table. When, as he expected, he found nothing there, he stood up straight and called, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

He ducked around the sofa, smiling when he didn’t find Katie. “Ha, you’re a pretty good hider for a baby, Katie,” he said.

He looked in a few other likely places downstairs, from the laundry basket full of clean clothes at the base of the stairs, to the space under the kitchen table. He stuck his head over the corner between the wall and his father’s armchair, and he peeked into the office.

“Where _are_ you?” A prickle of worry traveled down his spine, and Matt frowned at Katie’s tower of blocks, which still stood seven-high.

Matt walked back towards the kitchen, checking under the table again, but when he didn’t find her he grabbed the landline phone off the wall. His fingers hovered over the buttons, already recalling his mother’s cell phone number in preparation to dial it, but…

But what if he never had the chance to babysit Katie ever again?

Matt returned the phone to the wall. “Dad will get home soon,” he said out loud. “And he’ll help me find Katie.”

Something fell over, the clatter of something round and plastic against wood, and Matt spun towards the sound in the corner of the kitchen cabinets. “What?” he said, staring at that spot in confusion. He didn’t see anything there, except the only cabinet doors that weren’t baby-proofed.

“No way,” he muttered, approaching while his heart pounded in fear. He bit back a yelp at the sound of something else falling, but he resisted the urge to flee and call his mother, instead plowing on.

He knelt in front of the cabinet and opened it.

Inside sat Katie stacking Tupperware containers and prying off their lids. Her curly brown hair brushed the ceiling of the cabinet, and as Matt watched she knocked over her tower of Tupperware, pushing them out of the cabinet and scattering over the kitchen floor.

“Unbelievable,” Matt said with a sigh of relief.

Katie smiled in delight, until she noticed that every Tupperware in the house was now outside her little hiding spot. “Mo’?” she asked, her eyes focusing on Matt.

“Look at the mess you made, Katie,” he said without any bite. “Let’s clean it up, okay?”

She nodded in agreement and climbed out of the cabinet. He showed her how to attach container to lid, and helped her stack them neatly back inside.

“I guess you really like stacking things, huh?” he said once they finished. He ruffled her hair, and when she grabbed his hand, he led her back into the living room. “Let’s do something boring until Dad gets home, okay? Like watch TV?”

“What?” she said.

Matt grabbed the remote and sat on the sofa, then reached to pull Katie up with him. Instead of sitting beside him, she climbed into his lap. “Let’s see what’s on,” he said, pressing the power button.

He flipped to the familiar channels and smiled when he found _Sesame Street._ “You want to watch Elmo?” he asked, tilting his head down so he could look her in the eye.

“And Big Buwd,” she informed him with a sage nod.

“Yes,” Matt agreed as the bright yellow puppet in question entered the screen, “and Big Bird.”

Katie watched attentively, her small fingers clutching tightly to the hem of his shirt. Matt leaned his head back, not quite as entertained with the program as she was.

“What kind of bird is Big Bird, do you think?” he wondered.

“A pidge,” she said immediately.

“A what?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at her.

Katie tilted her head to stare up at him. “A _pidge_ ,” she insisted.

“What color are they?” Matt said.

“Dunno,” she replied with a frown.

“ _Where_ are they?”

“The pond.”

 _Geese?_ Matt thought, and then it clicked and he laughed. “You mean _pigeons_?”

When Katie nodded, he said, “Big Bird isn’t a pigeon. He’s the wrong color.”

She stared at him, lips pressed together, and shook her head in disagreement.

“Aw, no, he’s a canary, Katie,” Matt told her. “ _Those_ are yellow.”

“And big?” she wondered attentively.

“No,” he said, but then he added, “Pigeons aren’t big either. They’re small…like you.” He ruffled her hair.

“Okay,” she said.

“So Big Bird is a canary?”

“Yes.”

“Great,” Matt said, and they quieted, intent on watching the rest of this episode.

When Sam finally came home, he found his children focused on the TV – even his son, who insisted months ago that he’d outgrown _Sesame Street_.

**Author's Note:**

> next time Matt babysits his sister they almost burn the house down, probably
> 
>  
> 
> ~~can i write kids or nah~~


End file.
